Eve Samples: Two groups of women, two presidential candidates  some common ground

Those at Tuesday night's "Women for Mitt" country club gathering would have been a deep shade of red.

Those at Wednesday's public events with equal-rights advocate Gloria Steinem would have been a rich blue.

The Women for Mitt preached about repealing the Affordable Care Act, saying it interferes with patient-doctor relationships and will lead to doctor shortages.

The women with Steinem prioritized stopping government intrusion "at the skin" by upholding a woman's right to choose when she has a baby.

The Women for Mitt said they wanted a president with business-world experience who would create jobs.

The women with Steinem listened as the 78-year-old founder of Ms. Magazine praised Obama for signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

The Women for Mitt made no mention of reproductive rights or equal pay during their two-hour panel discussion at Mariner Sands Country Club south of Stuart.

For the women with Steinem, those issues were central to the conversations at the Blake Library and The Lyric Theatre in Stuart.

Still, there was philosophical common ground between the groups. It boiled down to this:

Both groups of women expressed a basic desire to be in control of their own lives; and both want the freedom to thrive financially.

Steinem shone a light on those shared ideas by explaining equal-rights issues in terms of economics.

"We speak about equal pay as if it's a women's issue," said Steinem, pointing out that women average 77 cents for each dollar men earn (up from 59 cents in 1963).

But closing that wage gap would pump $200 billion into the overall economy, according to her figures.

"It's a huge amount of money, and it's a great stimulus," Steinem said.

She framed reproductive rights in similar terms.

"Reproductive freedom for women is the single greatest element in whether we are educated or not, healthy or not, how long we live, whether we can work outside the home," Steinem said. "Reproductive freedom is a fundamental right, like freedom of speech."

She pointed to a previous generation of Republicans who supported Planned Parenthood and were pro-choice — notably the late Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater.

Current GOP nominee Mitt Romney is pro-life and says he would defund Planned Parenthood.

"If you're a true conservative, do you want government off the backs of corporations and into the wombs of women?" Steinem asked.

When Steinem criticized today's Republicans for "leaving women," two Republicans in the audience at the Blake Library spoke up.

"Many Republican women are very concerned about where the country is going," responded Kate Boland, a member of the Martin County Republican Executive Committee who also attended the Women for Mitt event.

Boland thanked Steinem for her work to advance women's rights, but indicated issues of national debt and the economy loom larger for her this election.

Steinem encouraged Republicans to push for both.

"Romney will listen to you, and he won't listen to me," Steinem said to Boland. "Maybe you can get him to support equal pay legislation. Maybe you can get him to support the Violence Against Women Act."

Steinem was careful not to condemn Republicans as a whole.

In fact, a Republican introduced her at the Lyric Theater: Martin County Commissioner Sarah Heard.

"Women's rights are unquestionably one of the most important political issues in the world," said Heard who, appropriately, was wearing a purple dress.

Several women in Steinem's audiences told stories about losing their jobs in the 1950s simply because they got married. It was a reminder of how far women have come.

"The adversary of this progress now is the idea that it's over," Steinem said.

A gender gap persists not only in terms of wages but also health insurance. In Florida, a 40-year-old woman buying individual health coverage pays 30-38 percent more than a man of the same age, according to the National Women's Law Center.

The Affordable Care Act will prohibit such "gender rating" starting in 2014.This fact didn't enter the conversation among the Women for Mitt.

Republican state Rep. Gayle Harrell, one of the panelists, pointed to tort reform, community health centers and health savings accounts as alternatives to Obamacare.

"Health savings accounts are a wonderful mechanism for really making people assume some responsibility and accountability in their health care expenditures," said Harrel, one of 120 members of the state House who this year declined to increase their own taxpayer-subsidized insurance rates so they are equal to what working-class state employees pay.

Women make up a majority of the electorate in the country and locally. In Martin County, about 54,000 registered voters are women, and 47,000 are men.

Both presidential candidates are trying to position themselves as the better choice for women.

"Election Day happens to be the only day that the most powerful and the least powerful have the same amount of power," Steinem said.

Early voting started Saturday.

Seize your power.

Eve Samples is a columnist for Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers. This column reflects her opinion. Contact her at 772-221-4217 or eve.samples@scripps.com.